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I was seriously worried two months ago when Obama nominated Elena Kagan for Supreme Court Justice. Back then, no one seemed to care that she had zero experience as a Federal Court judge. (The crux of her experience was being dean of Harvard Law School.) Little or no courtroom experience aside, she has an Xtreme liberal viewpoint which is so far to the left she almost falls off the scale.

Today, her hearings for confirmation begin. I am praying that Truth will come to light and that the Republicans who are even now poised for a fight will dig in their heels and keep this woman off the Supreme Court bench. I shudder to think how my children and grandchildren would suffer under this liberal's "interpretation" of the laws of our land.

I did not see Face the Nation on CBS on Sunday, but this quote disturbs me greatly:

"I think you're going to see a brilliant woman, a brilliant legal mind, and you're going to see somebody who is going to be the 112th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy on Sunday's "Face the Nation."
But that same argument was made by Justice Samuel Alito's supporters when he was nominated by President Bush in 2005. Alito was widely viewed as intellectually qualified and, as an appellate court judge, highly experienced. He too got the ABA's highest rating and had significant support from liberals -- including his liberal colleagues, who said he was intellectually honest, didn't have an agenda and was not an ideologue.
Nonetheless, then-Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as current Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy not only voted against Alito's nomination -- they also tried to mount a filibuster to block it.
On "Face the Nation" Sunday, Leahy deflected a question about the Democrats' shaky grounds for complaints about a possible Republican filibuster of Kagan, in light of their attempts to block Alito. Their efforts in 2006 were "symbolic at best," Leahy said.

It disturbs me as well as heartens me because I believe the Republicans will do the right thing by vetoing her confirmation. I pray so. We absolutely cannot have a Supreme Court Justice who has an agenda sitting on the bench. Kagan has an agenda, actually she has several. She has been very clear about it, too.

She has stated several times she wants the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repealed. She is lesbian and has a chip on her shoulder concerning civil liberties, especially concerning GLBT. She is extreme pro-abortion. She is against the right to bear arms, she is pro-bussing (no matter how long a child must ride the bus) for desegregation. Some very strong views she wrote in some memos to Justice Thurgood Marshall whom she clerked for and whom she called her hero. She tried to blow-off her strong views as a "pipsqueak... working for an 80-year-old giant in the law, and a person who, let us be frank, had very strong jurisprudential and legal views."

Sounds like someone trying to sweep something under the rug and doing a slight of hand, finger-pointing blame game, to me.

"A 17-year-old girl in the Gedo Region of Somalia was severely beaten by her family recently after they discovered she had converted to Christianity, according to Compass Direct News. Nurta Mohamed Farah, 17, was later taken to a doctor, who prescribed medication for a "mental illness." When she refused to abandon her Christian faith, her family forced her to take the medication."

How tragic this young woman is considered mentally ill because she believes in Jesus, and how doubly tragic her family resorted to beating the faith out of her. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have my family turn on me for what I believe. A young woman dependent upon her family doesn't have a recourse. Her family has been reading the Koran to her every day since May 4 because Muslims believe the Koran has healing powers. Can you imagine what it would be like to have read to you something that is so far removed from what you believe? How stressful that would be on a new believer, how confusing that could be.

I knew that things were bad for Christians in Muslim lands. I knew it is really bad for women. But, it seems a woman who converts has no mercy.

I have a huge question in my mind. Have people suddenly become really stupid? This oil spill in the Gulf is the worst disaster I have ever seen. Not because of the initial impact, but because of the decades it will take to recover from it. We are not talking five or six years like the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, or Hurricane Ivan, or Camile, or Betsy. We are talking decades. Now there is An Event happening this weekend which goes beyond stupidity in my estimation.

I was going through my inbox and ran across this notice from Great NonProfits... Hands Across the Sand.

This Saturday, June 26, people all over the world will be joining hands on their local beaches in a show of solidarity against offshore oil drilling. The aptly-named Hands Across The Sand movement was founded by surfer and restauranteur Dave Rauschkolb in October of 2009, but the upcoming event may prove to be the largest event to date in light of the BP oil spill.

Hands Across The Sand is sponsored by many environmentally-minded nonprofit organizations, including the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Rainforest Action Network and Center for Biological Diversity.

The thing is not against unsafe offshore drilling... just offshore drilling. I wonder if these "thousands" of people truly understand what they are against?

First off, there is the $300 billion in bills that can't be paid by the offshore oil drilling company workers. This of course wouldn't effect any of those who are joining hands because they are activists in the environmentally-minded nonprofit organizations. Their pay checks aren't being effected so it isn't any concern of theirs if families whose livelyhood come from offshore drilling don't have food on the table or electricity or clean water because they can't pay their bills because papa or mama has been laid off due to lack of work. (Praise God from Whom all blessings flow that a Federal Court judge had the gumption to cancel the ill-advised moratorium set forth by a president who acts first then gets all the facts.)

Secondly, no more offshore exploratory drilling would cost more than 20,000 jobs according to a Bloomberg report. The average oil rig worker salary is between $35,000 and $60,000 so the economic impact for losing more than 20,000 jobs is more than $970 million dollars. In an economy which is only now returning from almost complete devastation because of Katrina, that kind of economic impact is staggering.

I am astounded how many people in this world care more for animals than they do for real people with real economic problems. Again, since it doesn't effect their own paychecks or their A/C or food on their tables, it's okay to try to set in motion something that will eventually make the cost of gasoline skyrocket. But, they don't see that. Just like boycotting BP gasoline stations. That is another rack up on stupidity.

The BP stations are not company owned, they are locally owned. The gasoline going into the BP station tanks is not from a BP refinery but from some other refinery--which ever refinery has the best price the distributor can find! I have personally seen Shell tankers at an Exxon station filling their underground tanks. Distributors buy the raw gasoline from refineries and then put the Brand additives into the tanker as it is being filled from a Shell refinery, or ExxonMobile refinery, or whatever other refinery. The sheer cost of freight to transport refined BP petroleum from somewhere else in the world to your local BP station would make the cost of one gallon of gas rise to an extremely high, uncompetitive price.

Come on people, wake up! Ask God for some wisdom when reading news stories or listening to them. Ask Him to give you discernment to differentiate between truth and lies. Ask God to give wisdom in the kinds of causes that will be best for His people and to bring glory to Him.

Here we go again... political whisper campaigns are nothing more than magnified gossip. Nikki Haley is an American Indian and converted when she was 24. She, her husband and her children go to a Methodist church in South Carolina, but people who support her opponent (including two pastors) are questioning her faith. Their main proof is her website which changed "God Almighty" to "Christ" where she talks about her faith.

Oh bother!

I am not surprised. These kinds of tactics were used blatantly on Sarah Palin. Things which were not at all true, but were twisted from some obscure facts. I would like to remind every Christian out there that Paul used every means he could to reach the lost. He said that he became a Jew for the Jews and a Gentile for the Gentiles.

I would also like to remind everyone out there that right after God said to honor Himself and the Sabbath, He said to Honor thy father and mother. These political saboteurs say, "she described her marriage in a Methodist church but did not mention that she and her husband also participated in a Sikh wedding ceremony, and that she continues to attend Sikh services with her family a few times a year." This is supposed to mean what exactly? She isn't Christian? Give me a break.

I am disgusted with the political shenanigans that are being foisted upon the American voters. I seriously doubt there is anything ethical or valuable in anything any of the campaigns have to say about their opponents.

It is the same gossip. We hear some juicy tidbit and can't wait to call a friend to ask for prayer for so-and-so because... oh, haven't you heard? Well, the way I heard it was...No wonder our churches are emptying. If we treat our siblings in such a way, who would ever want to worship with us?

The question of babies going to heaven and how old does someone have to be to be held accountable has been bandied about since probably Jonah's day. I'd like to take a quick look at that question...

Take a look at Romans 7:7 Paul says "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have KNOWN sin except through the Law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." 8. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the Law, sin was dead. 9. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

Absolutely All have sinned and fall short. This includes little babies and little children. However, in God's mercy and with Paul's eloquent teaching we learn that the Law as set down by Moses was to specifically convict of sin. As I'm sure you know any conscience can be numbed by constant justification and rationalization. Except babies and children only understand their immediate environment. I'm hungry. Feed me! I'm thirsty. I'm dirty or wet or just uncomfortable. I'm tired. Their world is filled with I...Me...Mine. As soon as their horizon broadens to incorporate understanding the difference between right and wrong only then can they begin to understand choices and free will.

So many have held to the belief that a spouse and children of the couple are saved just because one of the parents is saved. That is not true.

John 3:15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. 16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 18 Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

I looked at several different versions and this one is The Message. I like it because it emphasizes each person is responsible for his/her own belief in Jesus the one and only. It also points out how crucial it is to salvation for a person to not only hear but to believe and to trust in Him. Babies don't have a clue how to believe in anything. Nor do they trust. How can they when they don't even have the strength to do much more than eat, sleep and cry.

The whole point here is freedom of choice. When we believe in Jesus we are freely choosing to trust Him. A baby or small child has no such choices. They have to drink the milk given to them; accept the clothes put on them; sleep in the brand of diapers put on them; sit in the car seat they are put in; go where their mother drives them; listen to the kind of music the mother (or father or brother etc.) chooses...

They live in a world of no choice whereas older children, teens, young adults, adults all live in a world of choices. We choose to believe Jesus or we choose not to believe. (And here's the sticky part) We choose to live a godly, Christian life or we choose to be a Sunday Christian. Life is all about choices.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the photochemical in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

6.. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the photochemical will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

Walk with me, if you will, though 1 Samuel 1 for a glimpse at what makes women tick.

There was a man...named Elkanah...and he had two wives…

Of course polygamy/bigamy is forbidden in the US and in most places around the world it isn't practiced -- men have wised up since the days of Solomon. But there are a lot of things that men can be married to besides a woman.

A woman needs to know her man loves her above all others. When a man spends long hours at work, at a hobby, working out, with "the boys" then there needs to be priority adjustment if the marriage is going to work. When ...Elkanah sacrifices, he gave several shares of the meat to his wife Peninnah with all her sons and daughters; but, although he loved Hannah, he gave her only one share…

A husband needs to show his wife he loves her. We are not told how Elkanah showed Hannah how much he loved her but he allowed her rival, Peninnah, to revile her and torment her because she had no children. That doesn't show much love and allows conflict within the family. No matter what the husband puts in place of his wife--hobby, children, work etc, this thing getting the attention the wife should have is reviling her and humiliating her. It is torment to love someone and be treated as the "second" wife. Year after year this happened... It is worse when nothing changes.

Tears usually mean, "I need you to comfort me and show me how much I mean to you." Once when she was in tears and would not eat, her husband said to her, "Hannah, why are you crying and eating nothing? Why are you so miserable? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

In a word, Hannah said, “No.”

Why is that? Remember the song in Funny Girl, Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady? For a Jewish woman, getting married was what she was born for, and the next was having children, preferably boys with a few daughters sprinkled in for old age. It was everything. When a woman had no children, she was nothing and was made to feel to be nothing with hurtful, sly, and snide remarks from the other wives of the home and the village. It was always pointed out. “Oh, yes, you know Hannah. She’s the barren wife of Elkanah.” The barren one.

Today, we are not admonished in public. But, inside we wither just a bit with so much longing to have a baby. Women sometimes worry themselves sick which literally keeps them from getting pregnant. Is the husband more than ten sons? In a word, “No.” There is no comparison. A husband cannot replace a son, nor can a son replace a husband. It is a ridiculous thought and one I am sure earned Elkanah a withering glance through Hannah’s tears.

And Hannah rose up after eating and drinking. That word translated “rose up” or “rise up” is very interesting. קוּם qûm koom The meaning is full of action: accomplish, confirm, continue, decree, make good, help, hold, (help to) lift up (again), make, X but newly, ordain, perform, pitch, raise (up), rear (up), remain, (a-) rise (up) (again, against), rouse up, set (up), (e-) stablish, (make to) stand (up), stir up, strengthen, succeed, (as-, make) sure (-ly), (be) up (-hold, -rising). Isn’t if fabulous the word UP is included. We all know Who is the Up-est of all Ups. She had decided to take some definitive action. She went to the Temple and made a vow.

This was one of the hardest things any woman could do. One has to wonder if she truly measured the cost of giving up her son after he was weaned. Samuel was around two or three when she grabbed his little hand and deposited him at Eli’s front door.

I imagine she probably wanted to say, “Here’s my drunken dream, Eli-man. What do you say to that?” But, I’m sure she didn’t. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to give up your son and only see him once a year? Can you imagine what it would be like to lovingly make clothes for him through out the year and then not see him wear them? To know he would out grow them? To love him, but not chat with him, or hear about the frogs and snakes he found? Nor ever to get a bouquet of wildflowers in a grubby little hand, or a hug that smelled of clean mud and a whiff of barn yard? Aching hearted, this woman gave up her rights of being Mother to give Israel a prophet who would anoint the kings of Israel. God must have settled her soul, and gave her comfort.

Women are resilient, persistent, hopeful, tolerant, prayer warriors. Those of us who put God first, know who has created us, given us our family, and who provides for us daily. There isn’t a man in the world who can fathom all the intricacies of women, or what makes them tick. So I am sorry if you clicked on this under false pretenses. The magnitude of a woman’s heart knows no boundaries, and the prayers of a righteous woman avails much.

I promise, I was not wasting time, but I was checking out Twitter and found a reference to this story about why Change is so hard to do -- it requires self-control and that commodity is expendable/exhaustible. Hmmm.

That sounds good, and the experiment with the chocolate chip cookies and the radishes seems to support the theory. But, there is something that just doesn't sound quite right about it.

If you indulge yourself with a chocolate chip cookie, you are supposed to be able to do some task for a longer period of time than if you exert self-control and eat radishes while the savory aroma of chocolate chips, all melty and warm and gooey floats about you.

This is one of the things that I had problems with in my Social Psychology class in college. So many of the things that these social psychologists "test" with their experiments completely leave out the God-factor in their experiments. They either do not know, or forget that self-control is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. If a person asks God for help with a task that has to be done, but seems insurmountable, then the task does become easier to do.

I have found that God will never do a task for me if whatever job He has set for me to do contributes to my growth in the eternal scope of things. He will provide things for me supernaturally which I am constantly amazed at, but I keep thinking that God is sitting on His throne and is jogging on the inside (laughing) at some of these crazy experiments that we humans come up with in order to understand the human Psyche.

Saw a story on the Military Channel last night, actually I had DVR'd it. I just love that feature on DishNet.

Quite compelling story of a deception one man pulled on Hitler who had a military bent bordering on fanatic (big surprise, that) to protect all the land he had captured in the war.

The Allies were going to come across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa and take one of three places, Sicily, Sardinia, or through the Balkans. Which ever route taken, they wanted Hitler to retreat from the area so it would be easier to take the place. It was decided that Sicily would be the best because it would open up the traffic lanes for safer supply lines as well as moving troops about.

The key was to deceive Hitler into thinking the Allies were ready to take Sardinia which would cutoff supplies to Rommel in North Africa altogether. Either Sicily or Sardinia would be tactic coups.

Major William Martin of the Royal Marines fit the ticket. He had died of pneumonia and pathologists knew that this kind of death would make it appear that Maj. Martin had drowned at sea. It was called, "Operation Mincemeat"

He was dressed in his military uniform, his briefcase filled with all kinds of official documents, oh so subtly directing German eyes toward Sardinia -- one statement in a letter talked about "bringing a can of sardines with him." He had a pompous letter from his papa, a few folded and refolded love letters from his sweetheart Pam, and an invitation to a gala event which could have had the house of cards come tumbling down if the Germans had been paying close attention.

Thus he was released off the coast of Spain. He was found and the "top secret" documents were read, copied, and ferried to German headquarters all as planned by one ingenious Lt. Cmdr.Ewen Montagu, a Royal Navy intelligence officer. Major William Martin of the Royal Marines, was a rounding success. He deserved medals of honor except...

Major Martin was never in the military. He had been refused for service. He was homeless, and he was an alcoholic. If he had not died from pneumonia, he would have died from liver disease. His family had allowed the use of his corpse as long has his real name was never revealed.

It is the only time in history that a world of freedom was saved over a man's dead body. He was dead, but he saved many lives. Thank you, Glyndwr Michael for lending your body for the pursuit of freedom. Job well done.

9/11 Tribute to Maj. Steve Long

About Me

My first love is using my
God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world, and I am so committed to
bringing God glory with my editing and my own writing. We are always looking for good authors at Christian Publishing House. I am a weekly columnist for Studylight.org and monthly contributor at LivingBetter50.com Each column comes out on Sundays at LiveAsIf.org for Studylight. Check them out.

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